Hecataeus of Abdera

Hecataeus of Abdera was an ancient Greek historian , geographer, and philosopher . He was active around 300 BC. Chr.

Life

Exact life dates are not known. Hecataus of Abdera was a contemporary of Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) and still lived during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt (305–283 BC). Already in antiquity , Hekataios was confused by Abdera with the eponymous researcher from Miletus. There were also disagreements in antiquity about the birthplace of Hecataeus: In addition to Abdera , Teos is also given. Under Ptolemy I, Hekataios lived in Egypt, including 15 years in Alexandria; later he moved to Sparta as an official of the Egyptian king . Further stations from his life are no longer known.

According to ancient tradition, Hekataios is said to have been a pupil of the skeptic Pyrrhon of Elis (around 360–270 BC).

Works

As an author, Hekataios was versatile. His main work was the history of Egypt , a document with valuable cultural and historical information. Since Hekataios himself lived in Egypt, he will have described many things from his own experience, but also compiled numerous older traditions. Presumably it was a text with a political tendency, since Hecataeus wrote it at the instigation of King Ptolemy I. He represented a Hellenistic concept, Hekataios idealized the Nile land and claimed that all culture had its origin in Egypt. The work served Diodorus as a source for the history of Egypt.

Another writing dealt with the Greek poets Homer and Hesiod . In his book about the Hyperboreans , Hekataios described a mysterious mythical and fictional people in the far north of Europe. It is unclear whether he actually wrote the book On the Jews ascribed to him ; in modern research it is mostly not assumed.

All of the works by Hecataeus are only preserved in fragments ( The Fragments of the Greek Historians , No. 264).

Hekataios von Abdera saw a well-constructed chain of arguments based on the Jews' memories of the experience of xenelasia ( Moses ), their misanthropy and isolating customs. However, recent research no longer sees him as a philosemitic or even anti-Semitic author.

literature

Javier Campos Daroca, Pedro Pablo Fuentes González: Hécatée d'Abdère. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Volume 3, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-271-05748-5 , pp. 505-525
John Dillery: Hecataeus of Abdera: Hyperboreans, Egypt and the Interpretatio Graeca . In: Historia 47, 1998, pp. 255-275.
Felix Jacoby : Hekataios 4th In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 2, Stuttgart 1912, Col. 2750-2769.
Klaus Meister : The Greek historiography . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-17-010264-8 , p. 136 f.
Hatto H. Schmitt : Hekataios . In: Hatto H. Schmitt, Ernst Vogt (Ed.): Lexicon of Hellenism . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-447-04842-5 , Sp. 408 f.
Marek Winiarczyk: The Hellenistic Utopias (= contributions to antiquity . Volume 293). De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-026381-7 , pp. 45–71 (especially on the work on the Hyperboreans).

Remarks

↑ Renè S. Bloch: Ancient ideas of Judaism. The Jewish excursion of Tacitus in the context of Greco-Roman ethnography. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-07971-8 , p. 38.

personal data
SURNAME	Hecataeus of Abdera
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hecataeus Abderita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	ancient historian
DATE OF BIRTH	4th century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH	Abdera or Teos
DATE OF DEATH	3rd century BC Chr.

[1] Renè S. Bloch: Ancient ideas of Judaism. The Jewish excursion of Tacitus in the context of Greco-Roman ethnography. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-07971-8 , p. 38.